Need for global effort in virus fight

When Covid-19 disease struck China a few months ago, many people in the rest of world thought it was just a problem for the Chinese.

It didn’t matter the warnings that started coming from Wuhan; we thought it wouldn’t reach us.

We can now see how wrong we were. The number of those infected with or dying from the new coronavirus in Europe, the United States and even Africa are frightening.

The global pandemic has not only overworked the medical fraternity but is also killing them too. The last such a major crisis was the Spanish flu of 1918, soon after the First World War.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) suspects that Africa may not be reporting the correct figures, owing to the poor healthcare systems in the continent.

Yes, the figures are beginning to go up, though only very slowly, but they may increase drastically as happened in Italy if we are not careful.

TAKE IT SERIOUSLY

A serious attack by the virus in Africa would be catastrophic, given the level of our disaster preparedness, especially on the medical front.

Our economies, too, do not have the shock absorbers to deal with a crisis of this magnitude, especially if it goes on for months.

It is gratifying to see how Kenya, and indeed the rest of Africa, is reacting to the crisis. The campaign to wash our hands and generally observe personal hygiene, keep social distance and avoid crowds, besides closure of borders and freezing international flights, among other serious actions, were unavoidable.

The strict quarantine regime, which was initially widely thought as punitive, is beginning to look fruitful. In fact, most Kenyan cases of infections are imported.

It is important for even senior people to be quarantined, as has been happening, in order for the rest of the population to take the disease seriously.

Kenyans have a habit of not taking things seriously until it is too late. That is how Italians initially reacted and we can see the devastation the disease has caused in that advanced country. It is lesson to us.

ECONOMY DENTED

The damage to our economy will be huge and we have begun to feel it. Exports have halved and continue to drop as consumption in the European, US and Asian markets dipped due to reduced economic activity.

Imports, which keep our economy moving, are badly hit. Gikomba market, Kirinyaga Road and Nyamakima areas, which act as indicators of our trading activities, are grinding to a halt. That has led to reduced trading countrywide.

Even the number of ships docking in Mombasa port, particularly from China, has plummeted. Soon our supermarkets, shops and kiosks could be closed down for lack of merchandise.

Even farmers should expect a drop in revenue as people struggle to make ends meet. Kenya Revenue Authority will be unable to raise sufficient revenue to finance the budget.

TIME TO COORDINATE

This situation is prevailing worldwide and the end result is bound to be a global recession. Therefore, fighting this virus is not something to be done by one country in isolation.

It will require the entire community of nations to cooperate and address it jointly. For starters, we cannot have a disjointed East African Community (EAC). When Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi or South Sudan acts independently, what do we expect?

Is it practical to suddenly stop trading and cross-border activities? Not possible!

The EAC leaders should quickly convene a summit, where they jointly agree to properly coordinate their actions.

We are simply too inter-connected to do it otherwise. Failure to do this, we should expected serious transportation problems of critical goods. We have a mechanism that works and we should utilise it.

The good thing is that, at the international level, we have a well-established United Nations system that works.

Led by the World Health Organisation, with the information and guidelines that it is giving, countries are well briefed and, therefore, well-positioned to make good decisions.

SELF-DISCIPLINE

The IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation, among others, must work together to stave off the looming recession.

At the bilateral level, countries such as China and other development partners should consider a moratorium or even waiver on their loans to African countries.

But there finally seems to be light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel — from China, no less!

After some drastic actions by Beijing, the situation appears to be improving as no infections are being reported anymore.

There is hope for us, too, but, in between, we must individually, and as governments, accept that we are going to have to go through a rather tough period, make scarifies and self-discipline to succeed.

Mr Nyagah is a former Cabinet minister. [email protected].